theWINDSareTURNING [taking my place]

[Forte!]

The sun berated the barren land, shining brightly across the flat expanse of desert that met dismal hooves. But the stallion who came now had his head held high, eyes glinting as he ignored the heat and marched on. Every third beat caught, the foreleg seeming to be in some sort of distress and stuck out at a bit of an odd angle when he walked. Two long gashes were instantly attacked by the swirling desert sands as the stallion moved along, pace like that of a royal although he was scarcely more than a pony. How he had managed to defeat the bigger stallion would be a feat that others would marvel at, that a figure as small as his own could defeat a feared dark lord. Every movement of the pony stallion showed a fierce pride, seeming to ignore the pain still present in his bleeding wounds and swollen shoulder. These things would go down with time, but his kingdom would not. He came now to the oasis of the lake, harbored by a few trees that clung close to the vanishing water. He lowered his head and waded knee-deep into the simmering water, pierced to the bottom by the sun's rays.

For a moment the stallion stood there, eying the great expanse of land around him. Caves and coves lay secreted beneath these golden sands, the remains of a long-forgotten human city were buried here under golden sand, roofs creating a latticework of prisons that were used by naught but the various dark lords who had lived here. It was a dismal place, an execrable place, but it was a place that was of great use to the darks who had always inhabited it since the city fell. Vultures and ravens called their death-song from the skies above, looking for anything that might wander into the desert and become trapped forever by the summer heat. The stallion, dubbed correctly Embezzlement, finally moved, turning to face the other direction and raising his voice to the fierce wind, to be carried with the sand to the high hills that lay to the east. "An empire has fallen!" he called, "in the land where empires always fall! The kingdom known as Anse de Dragon is no more, for the king has been defeated! Now comes the birth of a new era, an era in which darks control all, an era in which I am a king... And with this era comes a new name for the human's once-loved desert!"

"I dub my kingdom Fosse de Sabel, for that it what it is - a sand trap in which any who dares fight me will fall," the voice turned to a snarl now, as Bezzle closed his jaw and began to chuckle, the sound coming from the deepest reaches of his belly. Then he turned and raised his voice again, "Dysnomia, Kamenwati! Former royalty of this land, to me! It is time to discuss your futures!"

[s q u e e z i e-People Eater]

Dysnomia walked up to the stallion. He was smaller than her, and she hated the beast. Kamenwati followed behind her. "Our futures?" she spat out the words "I have no future in this place, and neither does my daughter". He may have beaten Axel, but that had been by luck.

Kamenwati walked toward the stallion. She stopped beside her mother. "You won't keep me here for long" she spat. At a year old, she was already as big as the new owner of the land. She shot daggers from her eyes, as she glared at him. He had such cheek. He thought he was so good, but he was just a pony. She snorted. She could manipulate a stallion to come and get her if she wanted. or she could just kill the stallion in front of her. Either way worked for her. She knew she would return, and rule these lands one day.

[Forte!]

Ignoring Dysnomia's comments, Bezzle turned to her with a cold look in his eyes. "The way things are going, you are never to be released. Your little 'mate' keeps losing those precious weeks that keep you here," he sneered, "thus, I will make you an offer. If you bear me a foal, I will allow you to go and never fight for you nor try to steal you back for the rest of the days. You will go and keep the foal for the first year of its life, but then you must return it to me." With that, he turned to Kamenwati, a grin taking over his features and distorting them strangely.

"Sadly, I will make no such deal for you, sweetheart," he snarled, "and I'm afraid that, the way things are going, you will be staying here for a long time, indeed. Good, that pleases me." His beady eyes gleamed maliciously, showing the danger that lurked in his every furtive movement, the knot in his muzzle from his last fight giving him a slightly bemused expression that made him look all the scarier. Then, he turned back to Dysnomia, his grin staying plastered on his pony face. "So, what do you say?"

[s q u e e z i e-People Eater]

Dysnomia listened, disgusted at the stallions words. Even the thought of baring a foal from him made her feel sick. But still, she was no stupid mare. If she got out of these lands, she could get Kamenwati out too. She would just need to find a willing stallion, and she was sure she could do that. She had charmed many stallions, whichever alliance, and even tamed horses, and now would be no different. Wincing, she said "I will accept your offer, but on one condition. When the foal is born, I can do whatever I like with it, weather it be care for it, or abandon it, to leave it to it's own fate, and believe me, I can quite easily do that" her words were cold, and she meant every one of them.

Kamenwati snorted at the stallions words. Her mother would nevr agree to that surely. But to her horror, her mother accepted. Her audits pinned back to her crown, ans she said the words. But after a while, she could see sence in her mothers madness. She turned to the stallion "Don't be so sure of yourself" she said, with an icy tone. She knew she would get out of here, and she would kill to do so.

[Forte!]

Bezzle's ears pricked as he heard Dysnomia's response, and his gaze hardened. "No, you must not kill it. Even I would not kill a foal. If you wish to give it away, you may do so," he snarled, remembering his own childhood. He had barely lived through it, born small and staying small, molested by others and abused by his own mother, "no foal deserves to be killed by its own mother." His ears flashed back suddenly, and he rose his head as the momentary sympathy ended. His beady eyes glimmered and a snarl escaped his lips.

"Very well. You may leave as soon as you wish, after becoming pregnant," he said, and then turned to Kamenwati with a cold glare. "I never am sure of myself, honey. That's what makes me so dangerous," he said with a grin, his sharp canines gleaming as he turned away, tail flickering in the wind as he awaited Dysnomia's final word on the matter. If she chose to abandon the foal, so be it. As long as Axel saw that Bezzle had changed her, had made her bend to what he wanted on the slight chance that she would save their daughter.

[s q u e e z i e-People Eater]

Dysnomia's eyes flashed, though she had already made her decision. She would kill the foal if she wanted, but she had something much worse in mind. "So be it" She said, turning away from her daughter. She gave her a look that said 'I will get you out of here' and she knew that she would. She then started to walk away, knowing that Bezzle would soon follow.

Kamenwati glared at the stallion. She could be dangourous too, and she knew it. She got what she wanted, with out fail, every time. Now would be no different, no matter how hard it would be. She trtted in the other direction, away from her other, and Bezzle. She hated the stallion with a passion, and she knew she would escape some how. She trotted up, toward Royal rock, enterd the cave, and lay down, on the cold, hard, stone floor.